Ever since Barack Obama launched onto the national scene, the media has been doing its level best to try to paint all disagreement with Obama as “racism”.  As if we conservatives and Republicans would have voted for a Fabian-socialist ward-heeler, had his last name been Tostengaard.

The meme is spread partly to try to fluster conservatives, to make us waste our time defending ourselves against scabrous slander instead of explaining why cutting taxes raises revenue.

But it’s just as important as a means of creating a paraoid, “us vs. them” mindset on the left; to convince them that they are just plain better than their opposition.  It’s a key part of any scorched-earth rhetorical war; one must caricature and dehumanize ones’ opponents.  Republicans didn’t just vote against socialism; they voted against a black guy.

And so the meme spread a few years ago among the entire leftyblogosphere chain of command, from Media Matters on down to MinnBlue or whatever it is today, that death threats against the President were running four times what they ran under George W. Bush.

Joe Doakes from Como Park writes:

The lie that won’t die – but will be used to shame blameless White Americans in St. Paul.

August 2009, CNN reports: Threats against President Obama have increased 400% since he took office.

December 3 2009, Politico reports: Secret Service says no, they haven’t.

December 4, 2009, RenewAmerica.com reports: CNN retracts 400% claim

BUT . . .

July, 2011, [St. Paul Pioneer Press columnist] Rubin Rosario reports: “ . . . threats against Obama rose more than 400 percent from the 3,000 a year logged under his predecessor . . . . ”

Insert joke about “fact-checkers” and “gate-keepers” here.

This entry was posted by by Mitch Berg on Friday, July 22nd, 2011 at 12:00 pm and is filed under Slander Files. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.